A group of German automakers, chemical concerns, and battery producers have announced the joint development of a “battery passport” designed to help government regulators trace the history of the cells. The consortium is funded by the German government and is supposed to work in tandem with new battery regulations that are being prepared by the European Union.

According to the German economic ministry, officially the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the overarching plan is for the EU to mandate traceable hardware be installed in all batteries used in the continent by 2026. Those intended for use in electric vehicles are up first, with the passport scheme also serving to chronicle everything from the vehicle’s repair history to where the power cell’s raw materials were sourced.  (Read More…)

Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess was bashing hydrogen-powered vehicles on Twitter this week in an attempt to convince those vying for Germany’s chancellorship not to embrace the technology. With Angela Merkel stating that she’ll not seek a fifth term, the country is open for new leadership and VW wouldn’t want them to take a liking to hydrogen power when it has placed all of its eggs into the electric vehicle basket.

“The hydrogen car has been proven NOT to be the climate solution,” Diess wrote on Twitter in German. “In transportation, electrification has prevailed. Sham debates are a waste of time. Please listen to the science!” (Read More…)

Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xpeng announced Thursday a decision to increase the size of its U.S initial public offering (IPO) by more than a third after realizing Wall Street can swallow anything so long as it promises a greener tomorrow.

Co-founded in 2014 by two former executives from China’s GAC Group, the EV startup has already managed to produce around 20,000 vehicles for the Asian market. It also became engaged in an intellectual property dispute with Tesla (which claimed Xpeng stole its Autopilot source code) in 2019 and ran afoul with California’s Department of Motor Vehicles after failing to submit disengagement reports on its self-driving test vehicles in 2018.

Such hurdles don’t seem to have slowed the company’s rise to prominence, however. Xpeng is adept at fundraising, amassing well over a billion dollars through strategic partnerships in just the last two years. Meanwhile, the adjusted IPO filed on the New York Stock Exchange this August now targets a cool $1.5 billion USD. (Read More…)

The European Commission is reportedly preparing an economic stimulus package aimed at helping the EU bounce back from economic hardships caused by the coronavirus lockdown — saving some room for incentivized electric vehicle sales.

As you may have noticed in your home country, stimulus package proposals often involve lawmakers attempting to slip something in to aid their favorite causes. While not every nation in the EU feels similarly on all matters, environmentalism has been a reoccurring theme within the union — and has encouraged it to make aggressive decisions when it comes to promoting vehicles.

For decades, the European Union spent billions in subsidies and tax breaks to make diesel fuel cheaper than gasoline. Diesel engines produced less carbon dioxide and opened the door to biofuels, so the presumption was they were better for air pollution. That turned out not to be true, so the continent then pushed hard into subsidizing EVs, with diesel sales crumbling as a result.

Now seen as the only way to save the world from heavy, gas guzzling crossovers that people actually buy in great numbers, battery electric cars are getting their moment in the sun. And it may get a little brighter. The next EU stimulus package is set to include €20 billion ($22 billion USD) for those deciding to purchase an environmentally friendly passenger car.  (Read More…)